Leonard "Lennie" Weinrib (April 29, 1935 – June 28, 2006), also known as Lenny, and Len, was an American actor, voice artist and screenwriter. He is best known for playing the title role in the children's television show H.R. Pufnstuf, the title role in Inch High, Private Eye, the original voice of Scrappy-Doo on Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, Hunk and Prince Lotor on Voltron, and Bigmouth on The Smurfs. He also was the voice for Timer in the "Time for Timer" ABC public service announcements in the early 1970s.

Woody Allen's character in his 1995 film Mighty Aphrodite was named "Lenny Weinrib."

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Life and career

A native of the Bronx, NY, Weinrib got his start in show business working with Spike Jones, then later in The Billy Barnes Revue. He made guest appearances on The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Burke's Law, The Munsters and Adam-12.

Voice actor

Weinrib is most notable for his voice acting work. Starting with The Jetsons Weinrib provided numerous voices for such animated series as Inch High, Private Eye, The New Adventures of Batman, Tarzan and the Super 7, and Hong Kong Phooey. He was the voice for both Roland and Ratfink in that series of cartoon shorts. He also provided the voice of Timer in the 1970s "Time for Timer" series of educational spots shown on ABC-TV.

Weinrib voiced Davey Jones' uncle Sedgwick, Shaggy's great-uncle Nathaniel, and Redbeard on The New Scooby Doo Movies and Cap'n Noah Smitty in Yogi's Ark Lark. He also voiced Scrappy-Doo in the original Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo TV series before Don Messick took over the role. Lennie voiced the title role in H.R. Pufnstuf throughout the show's entire run from 1969 through 1971, and also wrote every episode of the series. He also appeared as H.R. Pufnstuf as a guest on The Dating Game in Christmas 1972 and on one episode of the TV show CHiPs in 1977. On The Krofft Supershow he played the title character in Magic Mongo. Lennie also did the voices for Moonrock and Sergeant Boulder on The Flintstone Comedy Show. In 1986, he was the original voice of Freddy Flintstone on The Flintstone Kids, before Scott Menville replaced him the following season. In 1991, he voiced Max the Mole on the all-star Hanna-Barbera animated series Yo Yogi!

Directing/Writing

Weinrib's directing career consists of three feature films, all in the beach party genre: Beach Ball for Paramount in 1965, and Wild Wild Winter and Out Of Sight, both for Universal in 1966. Weinrib also co-wrote the popular 1963 joke book The Elephant Book.

As screenwriter, Lennie wrote two episodes for All in the Family, "The Man in the Street" (story / teleplay) and "Writing the President", both in Season 1 of the series. He also wrote eleven episodes for the TV series Doctor Doolittle, as well as seventeen episodes for the H.R. Pufnstuf series.

Retirement and death

Weinrib retired from acting in the 1990s and moved to Santiago, Chile. Family Guy executive producer Seth McFarlane, who had a reputation of parodying cartoon characters using their original voice actors on his show, had approached Weinrib with an offer to spoof his role of "Time for Timer" in the episode "Petarded". However, Weinrib declined, stating that he failed to have a strong enough memory of Timer to reprise the role.

Weinrib died in a hospital near his home on June 28, 2006, after suffering a stroke.

Family

Weinrib's elder daughter Linda Weinrib and grandchildren Lauren Bendik and Steven Bendik are voice actors. His younger daughter Heidi Weinrib has performed as part of the ensemble cast of Rojo de Chile, a Chilean talent competition broadcast by Television Nacional de Chile.